Participant

Question

InDesign Files Exporting Blurry

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
January 22, 2018
4 replies
22478 views

Hi,

I am trying to export a file from InDesign as a PNG, but the result is always blurry and pixelated. When I export as a PDF, it looks great. I have been able to export files as PNGs in the past and it looked just as good as the PDF, but recently everything is blurry and I'm not sure what changed. The file is readable, but just doesn't look as good as it used to. Most often, I need a PDF, but I occasionally need a PNG or JPG for social media and emails.

I've also tried exporting as a PDF and then changing to a PNG (or even JPG) from there, but the result is the same.

Does anyone have any insight into this issue? Or any ideas for making the quality better?

Thanks

Z

zedn

Participant

Hello, you can do it by saving it to PDF high quality .. and then open it from Photoshop .. and reduce the dpi from 300 to 72 .. then export it to PNG

P

Peter Simor

Participant

You have to PLACING the files into the indesign document, not pasting them. File->Place.

carmensays

Participating Frequently

The export feature in InDesign is awful compared to even most open-source (free) graphics applications. It only offers two file formats for exporting bitmap images, the other being JPEG which does not support transparency. Text is often unreadable under 300 ppi, even on "maximum" quality with anti-aliasing turned on. What I've been forced to do is export vector images to PNG at some absurd resolution like 1200 ppi, then open that new file in Photoshop, resize the image to a web-friendly resolution like 72, 96, and 150 ppi, then save. The resulting image is much sharper and any text is much easier to read than the crap InDesign outputs at those same resolutions. It's a needlessly painful procedure if I need to process hundreds of images though...

Steve Werner

Community Expert

A PNG will always be blurry because it's not a format which preserves type and vector objects well. The export format has not changed.

You'll get better results (but the file size will balloon much larger), if you change your resolution setting in the PNG export dialog from the default 72 ppi to 300 ppi or higher.

If you need vector and type quality, you must use PDF.

caitlinw81732068Author

Participant

Thanks! Changing the resolution setting to 300 ppi helped a lot.

So, if I am regularly creating social media posts and flyers for the web/email (thus needing a PNG), what do you suggest is the best program to use? I have always just used InDesign because I am the most familiar with it and feel it works well. Will another program, say Photoshop or Illustrator, give me better results? I would love to just use a PDF everywhere all the time, but obviously that's not possible.

I appreciate your help, as I am relatively new to all this!

InaLandCalledHonahlee

Known Participant

I have the same problem. PNGs are such a hassle and every program seems to have some kind of issue with them, but it's the only way to get a transparent background in your final image which I need for designing logos and watermarks and such. I know for a fact that Indesign isn't the correct tool for that but it's what I have access to. From what I understand Illustrator and Photoshop do better with creating PNGs but I don't know if it would solve this particular issue. I would be interested to know a pro's opinion on your 2nd question above.

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